John Stivers – Sustainable

Video Transcript:

When it comes to sustainable, I’d like to go a little bit further than the traditional definition where we make reference to the Native Americans that realized we need to provide for, let’s say our grandkids and our great grandkids, as well as ourselves with what we do today. One of the ideas in the marketplace that historically we’ve done is, we’ve used up our abundance of natural capital for short term profits. So if I were in the lumber business and had millions of acres, I’ve got 2 choices. When there’s a housing boom going on, I could sell to the marketplace and make all the money possible. But that really isn’t sustainable, because it takes maybe 100 years for those plants that I have to replace them with to finally reach maturity and be ready for market again. So true sustainable management is where, instead, I decide, what do the plants tell me I can actually harvest this year? And even though the marketplace is significantly great than that, that’s all the more I sell.